European Football To Be Taken Seriously

Well so says Luke Young at any rate who sounds bitterly disappointed that our decision to focus on the league didn't work.

Speaking on the official site, well to be fair Dan Harrison formulating an article around the verbal comments of Luke Young, he said that he couldn't wait for next years Europa League because he'd forgotten about the joys of European football prior to the Ajax game.

For those who remember, Young played in the competition almost a decade ago whilst plying his trade at Spurs, so it comes as no surprise really that our return to European action against Mighty Ajax stands out as one of the players moments of last season.

'I played a couple of games for Tottenham going back 10 years and I forgot what it was like.

'The Ajax game at home was a brilliant atmosphere and a great game to be involved in.

'In the end Europe didn't quite work out for us. We decided to concentrate on the league but hopefully next year we will go for it and try and win the competition.

'We are definitely a side that can do well in the cups. There is no reason why we can't.'

I'm refusing to be a cynic here by pointing out that Martin O'Neill has already said if the circumstances arose again in the future we would see exactly the same decision as we saw against CSKA, but these are brave words from Luke in many ways.

We all know as fans the league is a longshot, and in the end putting all our eggs in the Champions League basket proved to be our downfall.

If you read between the lines here Young accepts we aren't in a position to challenge the Top 4 yet and indicates our aims should be good Cup runs and silverware.

I think most fans would agree, and all of us would've taken 6th place and treating all the Cups seriously at the beginning of last season.

This should be our aim again, but this time it should be the stated aim of the club - nothing should be built into what it isn't.

This season we have no reason to talk about Top 4, we have no need given Barry's departure, so let's concentrate on further consolidation, living up to the brilliant football everyone who doesn't watch us thinks we play, and building the squad further and properly.

Top 6 and three good Cup runs with a desire to win them, regardless or not of whether we are successful, will see me this time next year very happy indeed.

"brilliant football everyone who doesn't watch us thinks we play."
Obviously a deeply sarcastic tone here..... I'm sorry, but I agree with "those who don't watch us play" my friend.... should we yearn for the "hoof it up to Ian Olney / Tony Cascarino" days, or maybe the "let's give it to Merse and hope he can do something" era? Perhaps the stunning football under Joe Venglos?
The ONLY team at Villa Park that has been as good as this one in terms of entertainment value was the 92-94 BFR era... our attacking play is fast and incisive with a balance of pace (Gabby), skill (Ashley), strength (Carew/Heskey) and craft (Milner, Ashley, Petrov)......

"brilliant football everyone who doesn't watch us thinks we play."
Obviously a deeply sarcastic tone here..... I'm sorry, but I agree with "those who don't watch us play" my friend.... should we yearn for the "hoof it up to Ian Olney / Tony Cascarino" days, or maybe the "let's give it to Merse and hope he can do something" era? Perhaps the stunning football under Joe Venglos?
The ONLY team at Villa Park that has been as good as this one in terms of entertainment value was the 92-94 BFR era... our attacking play is fast and incisive with a balance of pace (Gabby), skill (Ashley), strength (Carew/Heskey) and craft (Milner, Ashley, Petrov)......

There is another option GM....we could play the kind of football that got us that tag to begin with. This season has not been entertainment, yet we've lived off the last two years of high scoring games, quick counter attacking football etc. 10 men behind the ball before nicking the points by a single goal is not what I call the entertaining football we have seen from this squad.

There is another option GM....we could play the kind of football that got us that tag to begin with. This season has not been entertainment, yet we've lived off the last two years of high scoring games, quick counter attacking football etc. 10 men behind the ball before nicking the points by a single goal is not what I call the entertaining football we have seen from this squad.

"... all of us would've taken 6th place and treating all the Cups seriously". Yes, but you are again overlooking a major flaw in the "we should have gone for everything" argument - we may have won in Moscow and gone out in the next round, or we may have gone further but dropped out of the European placings for this year. Would you have taken that - because I wouldn't, and neither would our current players, or those we might hope to sign.

"... all of us would've taken 6th place and treating all the Cups seriously". Yes, but you are again overlooking a major flaw in the "we should have gone for everything" argument - we may have won in Moscow and gone out in the next round, or we may have gone further but dropped out of the European placings for this year. Would you have taken that - because I wouldn't, and neither would our current players, or those we might hope to sign.

But we'd have gone out with respect and after trying. What do you think is harder for players to see, current and prospective, throwing Cup comps for a pipedream, or trying to be as successful as we can on all fronts and seeing where the penny drops. Given our run of form in the second half of the season I very much doubt we 'would have done worse' had we taken the second leg seriously. You never know, taking the Cup seriously may have been the boost of form we needed to finish the league better.

What I will say is yes I would've personally, I want my club to try and win things not be happy finishing fourth and throwing everything else. I'd suspect our current players felt the same given the fact Barry said he wasn't tired, players were hyping the UEFA, Young talking about wanting to try and win it next season oh and the fact the players looked thoroughly peeved from thereon in.

What would players rather have at the end of their careers, medals or a history book saying they once managed to finish 4th meaning they were 3rd best compared to the champions.

But we'd have gone out with respect and after trying. What do you think is harder for players to see, current and prospective, throwing Cup comps for a pipedream, or trying to be as successful as we can on all fronts and seeing where the penny drops. Given our run of form in the second half of the season I very much doubt we 'would have done worse' had we taken the second leg seriously. You never know, taking the Cup seriously may have been the boost of form we needed to finish the league better.

What I will say is yes I would've personally, I want my club to try and win things not be happy finishing fourth and throwing everything else. I'd suspect our current players felt the same given the fact Barry said he wasn't tired, players were hyping the UEFA, Young talking about wanting to try and win it next season oh and the fact the players looked thoroughly peeved from thereon in.

What would players rather have at the end of their careers, medals or a history book saying they once managed to finish 4th meaning they were 3rd best compared to the champions.